


How Things Ought To Be

by FujurPreux



Category: BBC Merlin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-15
Updated: 2010-04-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin gets a little carried away with his studies</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Things Ought To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Mutation / Physical transformation" prompt from the [cliche_bingo](http://community.livejournal.com/cliche_bingo) challenge.

According to Merlin's book, to transform one thing into another, you had to find the bridge that connected them, that made them the same, because once you had it, there would be no problem finding the spell that would change them. There were so many things in this world and each one of them could be transformed into each of the other that was impossible to list all possible spells in one book, and even more in just one chapter. Yet, that chapter explained very clearly how to find those bridges.

For some things it was easy, like turning a flower into a quill: flowers were beautiful and quills were used to embellish the world by being a key instrument in the creation of new books. Others were trickier, like transforming a saddle into a dress; that one required a chain so long with so many steps it took Merlin about a week to finish it --it would've been less than half of that if he could devout a little more time to his studies. Although, after that, to save face, Merlin had to tell Arthur, who had shown up from nowhere and nearly made Merlin's heart stop, that the dress was a present for Gwen, thus he hadn't been able to change it back to the saddle it once had been.

Not much later, the saddle's owner, one of Arthur's knights, organized a manhunt that went on for a couple of weeks looking for the thief who had stolen it. Said thief was, luckily, never found.

Meanwhile, in a different side of Camelot, Gwen was looking lovely in her new dress.

 

Once Merlin felt comfortable enough transforming things behind Gaius's back, he tried to show his new skill to his mentor. Of course, it had to be that one time the spell was bound to fail miserably. Actually, it had been a miracle Gaius's laboratory hadn't caught fire.

As he was cleaning up the mess he'd made, trying to figure out when exactly the spell had started to go wrong, he began wondering if changing a human being would be much different. He left the broom aside and walked into his room to pick up the book. The human transformation chapter was two chapters away from the one that talked about transforming inanimate objects. It started with a several-pages long warning about how dangerous those enchantments could be.

Merlin, of course, understood very well that playing with a human life was a very delicate matter and therefore he skipped those pages.

He finally got to the interesting part.

The theory wasn't all that different, except that it was essential you had a flawless knowledge of human anatomy. Merlin knew where most things on the human body should be, but a little voice in his head told him that his knowledge wasn't exactly flawless.

Thinking about it, he reached the conclusion that, if there was someone who would have that flawless knowledge, it would be a doctor.

"Merlin!" Gaius yelled from outside the young warlock's room, right on cue. "Where are you and why haven't you finished cleaning this up?"

Merlin left the book right next where he was and went to face the still upset Gaius. "Gaius! Can you please teach me human anatomy?"

The question caught Gaius off guard. He was suddenly as confused as he was flattered and he even forgot momentarily about the current state of his laboratory. "Where does that suddenly interest comes from?" he asked.

"I think my education is lacking in that area," Merlin said.

Gaius beamed. "I'm glad you noticed that on your own. Let's see..." He picked up about a dozen books and the lesson began.

Merlin absorbed all the new information like he was a sponge; he had a practical application for it, after all.

They didn't finish until several hours later. Gaius's throat was sore and Merlin's head was pounding, but it had been worthy. Now he knew more than he'd known that morning and he also knew there was a lot more to learn on the subject. He spent the whole week studying whenever he could.

Arthur just rolled his eyes whenever he saw Merlin with the anatomy book and was trying to be as patient as possible. He was doing it well until Merlin let Arthur's supper burn because he was too busy reading to pay attention. Arthur then, had been merciful enough to spare his manservant the stocks, but he withheld the book and sent Merlin to brush all the war horses on the stables as a punishment.

 

"Merlin's doing something praiseworthy," Morgana said.

Arthur scoffed as he flipped through the pages of the book. "Burning my meals is praiseworthy?"

Morgana rolled her eyes and took the book away from him. "That he's trying to educate himself. How many nobles have that chance and wasted away? Look at Merlin, Arthur. He began his life as a peasant in a small village and now he's here, serving the crown prince."

"Well, that's certainly an honor for him," Arthur agreed.

Morgana decided it would be too easy to take that one, so she carried on. "A good prince surrounds himself with worthy people, and the more Merlin knows, the more worthy he would be. Perhaps it would be a time when he can give you good advice, like Gaius does with Uther."

Arthur thought about it for a few moments. He didn't tell Morgana that Merlin had actually given him good advice before, nor that the idea of keeping Merlin around for life wasn't exactly an unpleasant idea.

Merlin was smart. He had actually a good head on his shoulders but, as Morgana had pointed out, he'd been born in a small village. In Camelot, Merlin had been experiencing a little more of the world outside, but that hadn't been enough. He was still young and had a lot to learn, and the most useful things weren't taught in the stables.

 

Arthur walked into the stable just as Merlin had successfully transformed a flea into a fly. The warlock had lost the count of the times his master had nearly given him a heart attack, hence, as the fly went away, Merlin promised himself he'd be more careful next time --just as he had promised the same thing to himself every other time.

"What are you doing, Merlin?" Arthur said.

"What you told me to do," Merlin replied.

Arthur sighed. There was only two horses brushed, and Merlin had been there nearly the whole day. But he decided to overlook that. "How serious are you about your studies, Merlin?"

Merlin blinked. "Very serious?" he said.

Arthur folded his arms. "That's not an answer, Merlin."

Merlin tilted his head slightly. "I am very serious about them," he said then, his voice more steady than before. He'd said the truth both this once and the first time, but he knew the true subject of his studies wouldn't be approved by his master; it'd been only incidental it suddenly overlapped with something that could be. Deep down, Merlin felt a little bitter because he couldn't carry the book of magic when he needed it the way he could with the other one.

"You better prove it," Arthur said, offering the book back to Merlin. "First, you have to learn to prioritize and do your job well if you don't want me to kick you out of Camelot the next time the smallest speck of rust shows up in my armor, you got that?"

Merlin took the book. "Yes, sire."

"Also, I'm going to ask Gaius to test your progress once a month. If he says the results are satisfactory, you may keep studying on your free time. If not, you won't have any free time at all."

Merlin smiled. He wasn't expecting that, pretty much the same way Arthur wasn't expecting he was actually giving his manservant permission to study magic. "It works for me," he said.

"Perfect," Arthur said as he tried not to let his expression soften. He still hadn't got used to how good it felt to make others happy. "Let's go, I'm hungry."

Merlin lightened up even more and followed Arthur outside the stables. There were times when he genuinely liked the prince, and this was one of them. "I'll get you something from the kitchens. There's some honey bread and wild boar and--"

Arthur thanked the opportunity to roll his eyes. How Merlin found that energy to babble so much it was a mystery to him, but he wasn't going to ask. Instead, he said that wild boar would do as long as it wasn't burnt.

Merlin decided not to acknowledge that last part and he rushed to the kitchens. He walked through the door and spun to close it but, right then, he saw Arthur also turning around to go to his chambers, and he didn't notice Merlin saw him grinning.

Merlin closed the door and went straight to fulfill his task. He was, truthfully, feeling quite happy, and he would absolutely reconsider the idea of changing Arthur into a squirrel for the time being.


End file.
